DONAL LEAHY,
Sir, - Kevin Myers's diary of January 30th bravely, and with due regard for the victims of Bloody Sunday, raised a "what about?" hare.
He did so to demonstrate the selective nationalist/republican bent of the Irish media's selective memory.
I remember well the hostility of those in the media with their "whataboutery" immediately after the murderous attack of September 11th, allowing no sympathy for victims of the American massacre without a moral equivalence for other past suffering from Chile to Africa - all, of course, America's doing. Well done, Mr Myers, for exposing Irish hypocrisy at its most virulent. It's a dangerous virus. - Yours, etc.,
DONAL LEAHY, South Main Street, Wexford.
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Sir, - The efforts by some commentators to equate what happened in Derry on Bloody Sunday with other atrocities in Northern Ireland and Britain don't stand up. Nor does the specious argument about the cost of this latest inquiry merit any consideration.
The shooting of those 13 people was carried out by Her Majesty's forces and amounted to state-sponsored murder. What happened in Birmingham, Warrenpoint and Enniskillen was murder carried out by terrorists who, though they may claim otherwise, represent no one.
The chilling reconstruction of those events 30 years ago, as shown on TV over the past two weeks, could have left nobody unmoved. Up to that point I must admit I was suffering a bit from Bloody Sunday fatigue and wondered what all the renewed fuss was about.
Now my opinion is very different and I fervently hope that Saville will reveal and conclude what Widgery lamentably failed to do. - Yours, etc.
T. O'GORMAN, Luttrellstown, Castleknock, Dublin 15.
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Sir, - Your recent extensive coverage of the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday reminds me that this year is also the 30th anniversary of the bombing of Claudy. On that horrendous day, nine innocent people of all ages and faiths were called prematurely to meet their maker. Their sole crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It caused the most profound psychological damage to families and to family circles of all those from whom a loved one was untimely wrenched that day. To that may be added that the physical consequences of the bombing upon the village lingered an unconscionably long time. Indeed, only in the past two years or so have the last traces of it disappeared from the townscape.
No one to my knowledge has ever been held officially to account for that bombing. Nor, it seems, will anyone ever be thus held responsible. Over the years, the people of Claudy picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and got on with their lives. The main trace of the bomb now is a dignified little memorial in the town car park.
We don't have annual commemorations of the Claudy bombing. Still less do we hear demands for a judicial inquiry along the lines of that seemingly unending white elephant currently running in the Guildhall. Could it just be that the people of Claudy have a lesson for the Bogsiders to take on board? - Yours, etc.,
PHILIP G. GORMLEY, Garden Street, Magherafelt, Co Derry.
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Sir, - Fintan O'Toole's column "I was a teenage Provo" (Opinion, January 29th) must have struck a chord with many readers. Surely it is time to move forward.
At last something approaching the truth about Bloody Sunday is emerging, 30 years too late. Is it too much to ask that those in Provisional IRA/Sinn Féin, whose former associates committed the Omagh outrage, should provide the authorities, North and South, with any information they possess? This would demonstrate their commitment to peace and reconciliation and would be a meaningful gesture to all those who suffered at their hands over the past 30 years. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID GRIFFIN, Magherally, Banbridge, Co Down.